A new report about pending home sales nationwide includes some bad news for home sellers in South Florida.
Pending home sales are falling fastest in the market of Fort Lauderdale, where it’s down 15.2% year over year during the four weeks ending November 10, according to Redfin, a tech-powered real estate firm. That represents the biggest decline among the U.S. metropolitan areas analyzed by Redfin analyzed. Next on the list is Miami (-14%) followed by West Palm Beach (-13.8%). Two other Florida cities, Jacksonville (-9.5%) and Tampa (-7.2%), rounded out the top five.
Nationwide, pending sales actually rose 4.7% over the same period, reports Redfin.
The latest data for Palm Beach County shows a huge increase in active listings, with the number rounding out to more than 5,500 — a 31% uptick in available homes compared with the same figures last year.
Blame destructive hurricanes, rising mortgage rates, and higher insurance premiums for the slump in home sales of single-family residences, townhouses and condos in the tri-county area.
“Florida’s housing market has been slowing for months as residents grapple with frequent natural disasters, along with a surge in home insurance costs and HOA fees fueled by intensifying climate risk,” says Redfin, noting that hurricanes Helene and Milton that swept across central Florida were part of a “devastating” hurricane season.
In a statement accompanying the Redfin report, Lindsay Garcia, a Redfin Premier real estate agent in Fort Lauderdale, described the market as “slow.”
“There’s still some demand for vacation homes, but in general, the market is very slow. Buyers have been grappling with persistently high housing costs and uncertainty around the election. First-time buyers are especially skittish,” said Garcia.
“The condo market is really struggling because of high HOA fees and homeowner’s insurance costs, and on top of that, many condo owners are seeing special assessments due to new rules implemented after the Surfside condo collapse. Some condos are sitting on the market for over a year," she added.
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